Thoughts on Open
David Wiley
@opencontent
http://lumenlearning.com/

Unless otherwise noted
this presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0

Talking to “My People”

“Permissionless Innovation”
Adam Thierer
“Democratizing Innovation”
Eric Von Hippel

Don't EVER make the mistake [of
thinking] that you can design
something better than what you get
from ruthless massively parallel trial-
and-error with a feedback cycle.
That's giving your intelligence
_much_ too much credit.
Linus Torvalds
Creator of Linux

Infrastructure and Innovation

Relatively inexpensive
Broad permissions

If Broadband Cost…
$500 / month?
$5000 / month?
Does Amazon or Google exist?
Do online courses exist?

If Broadcast Licenses…
were necessary to publish video?
were necessary to publish text?
Does YouTube or Twitter exist?
Do online courses exist?

thrives when the costs and obstacles
to experimenting are low

Outcomes Assessments Resources Credentials
Education Infrastructure

Outcomes Assessments Resources Credentials
Relatively expensive
Very narrow permissions

Relatively Expensive
Only those with significant capital
can afford to experiment

$0
$200
$400
$600
$800
$1,000
$1,200
$1,400
$1,600
$1,800
Tuition Textbooks
Annual Costs
$1288
$1666

Textbook Pricing in Context
Streaming Access to… Cost…
Netflix – 10k Movies and Episodes $7.99 / month
Hulu Plus – 45k Movies and Episodes $7.99 / month
CourseSmart – 1 Biology Textbook $19.67 / month

A Wizard of Earthsea
Studying from texts
written in
disappearing ink

“Disappearing Ink” Strategies
Buyback, rental, e-books
online subscriptions

Very Narrow Permissions
ALL Rights Reserved

“You may not take any Online Course offered by Coursera or
use any Statement of Accomplishment as part of any tuition-
based or for-credit certification or program for any college,
university, or other academic institution without the express
written permission from Coursera. Such use of an Online
Course or Statement of Accomplishment is a violation of these
Terms of Use.”

Permissions are Critical

If I have seen further
it is by standing on
the shoulders of
giants.
Isaac Newton

All Rights
Reserved
Copyright
=
Spiked
Shoulder
Pads

Hiding Behind Fair Use and TEACH
Small-scale innovations must
remain hidden and kept quiet

Outcomes Assessments Resources Credentials
Relatively expensive
Very narrow permissions

Trouble with Costs and Permissions?

Open
Outcomes
Open
Assessments
Open
Educational
Resources
Open
Credentials
Open Education Infrastructure

Open
Outcomes
Open
Assessments
Open
Educational
Resources
Open
Credentials
Open Education Infrastructure

Which “open”?

open ≈ free

free is assumed online

open = free + permissions

Open
1. Free and unfettered access
2. Perpetual, irrevocable 5R permissions

• Make and own a copyRetain
• Use in a wide range of waysReuse
• Adapt, modify, and improveRevise
• Combine two or moreRemix
• Share with othersRedistribute
The 5Rs

retain is fundamental

• Make and own a copyRetain
• Use in a wide range of waysReuse
• Adapt, modify, and improveRevise
• Combine two or moreRemix
• Share with othersRedistribute
The 5Rs

License Comments
No one can definitively say what
“noncommercial” means, including
Creative Commons
Creates license incompatibility issues with
other openly licensed materials
Mandated by foundations and
governments, adopted by modern projects

License Comments
No one can definitively say what
“noncommercial” means, including
Creative Commons
Creates license incompatibility issues with
other openly licensed materials
Mandated by foundations and
governments, adopted by modern projects

Open
1. Free and unfettered access
2. Perpetual, irrevocable 5R permissions

“Faux-pen”
1. Free (possibly gated) access
2. All rights reserved (or stronger)

Open
1. Democratizes innovation (Free)
2. Permits innovation (CC BY)

“Education enabled by the
Internet”

©

Copyright
Regulates
Handwriting Printing Press Internet
Copying
of a textbook
$1000s per
copy
$1s per copy $0.0001s per
copy
Distributing
a textbook
$1000s per
copy
$1s per copy $0.0001s per
copy

Tech
Enables
Law
Forbids

traditionally © materials
+ internet

openly licensed materials
+ internet

Tech
Enables
Open
Permits

Open Is Worth Defending
And must be defended vigorously

64
Textbook Costs and Student Success
Outcomes
Six-year
graduation
rate for
open access
institutions
33%
Avg. annual textbook
cost per college
student
$1,200
Costs growing
3x
inflation
Cost
students go without
textbooks due to cost
6 in 10
take fewer
courses
due to
textbook
cost
35%
Access
of community college
students achieve
credential goals
<50%

65
Internet, Textbook Costs, Student Success
Outcomes
Six-year
graduation
rate for
open access
institutions
?%
Avg. annual textbook
cost per college
student
< $50
Costs
dropping
Cost
students go without
textbooks due to cost
0 in 10
take fewer
courses
due to
textbook
cost
0%
Access
of community college
students achieve
credential goals
?%

Project Kaleidoscope

Participants
• 4,909 treatment
• 11,818 control
• 50 undergraduate courses
• 130 teachers
• 8 institutions
Submitted to Computers & Education

Method
Quasi-experimental design with:
• Propensity Score Matching
• Dependent variables: Completion; C or
Better; Credits Enrolled This Term; Next
Term
• Independent variable: Textbook condition
• Covariates: age, gender, and race

Results
Increased:
• Completion (X2
res = +2.9, -2.9)
• C or Better (X2
res = -2.5, +2.7)
• Credits this term t(8101) = 27.81, p < .01
• Credits next term F(1, 6440) = 154.08,
p <.01

Developmental Math
Published in Educause Review

From textbook and MyMathLab ($170)
To OER and MyOpenMath ($5)

73
% Completing with C or Better
48.4%
60.2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Spring
2011
No OER
Spring
2013
All OER

“Mad” “Glad”
“Sad” “Rad”
Cost
Completing with C or Better
Student Success per Dollar
0 100%
$200

“Mad” “Glad”
“Sad” “Rad”
Cost
Completing with C or Better
Pearson
Student Success per Dollar
0 100%
$200

“Mad” “Glad”
“Sad” “Rad”
Cost
Completing with C or Better
Pearson
OER
Student Success per Dollar
0 100%
$200

Completing with C or Better
Student Success per Dollar
0 100%
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Cost
$250
$0

Associates of Business
“Z Degree”
Graduate without ever buying a textbook
World’s first “all-OER” degree
~30% cheaper for students

When a student drops, it..
Slows down their graduation
Costs the institution tuition dollars
(refunds)

(182 * .89 * $164.35 * 3) in-state + (182 * .11 *
$358.95 * 3) out-of-state = $101,042 annual INTRO
Submitted to EPAA
INTRO Model

impact.lumenlearning.com

Open
Outcomes
Open
Assessments
Open
Educational
Resources
Open
Credentials
Open Education Infrastructure
What are we defending?

Open
Outcomes
Open
Assessments
Open
Educational
Resources
Open
Credentials
Open Pedagogy
Open Sustainability / Business Models
Open Education Infrastructure

Open Pedagogy
The set of things you can do when
outcomes, assessments, and resources
are open that you cannot do otherwise.

PM4ID

PM4ID

“Open”
Re-professionalizes Faculty (+IDs)
You are the experimenter
You are the innovator
You’re in control
(Stop abdicating to Pearson!)

Beware Closed Platforms
Has the vendor locked up the content so
that it’s “teacher-proof”?
(Open” values local knowledge)

Beware Closed Platforms
Are there secret
All Rights Reserved algorithms?
“Trust me, I’m from Knewton”

Humility and Wonder
Facilitate the unexpected
Enable serendipitous reciprocity

Do Unto Others
Add more value than you extract
Make it easier for the next guy

Own, Don’t Access
“Access” is a war on ownership of private property
If you can’t 5R it, you don’t own it

Proxy Selfishness
Be selfish on behalf of others
Maximize your potential to be useful
Empower yourself by empowering others

Gratitude
Pay it forward
Our moral obligation to one another

GREAT
So what do I do?

1. Openly License Your Syllabus
Including your learning outcomes

2. Replace Your Textbook
With open educational resources

3. Openly License Your Assessments
Performance assessments first
Test item banks next

Conversation
@opencontent
@LumenLearning
http://lumenlearning.com/